Humility is at the core of every life Brooks presents as an example of Adam II’s triumph over Adam I. Without the willingness to recognize personal flaws and shortcomings, none of the individuals discussed in the book would have been able to achieve, for both others and themselves, what they did. If they were once too proud for their own good, the individuals in question, usually through hardship or some other formative experience, learned to abandon their pride and do the necessary work. Brooks emphasizes that it was necessary for him to find humility to undertake the writing of this book, and the reader must also find it to seek improvement.

Most of the individuals whose lives Brooks examines suffered from a lack of discipline at the outset of their journey. Whether they were too proud, too lustful, too temperamental, too shallow, or possessed of another similar tendency toward excess, they all needed to overcome faults to better themselves. Hardship recurs as a catalyst for learning discipline, as there are few teachers as effective as suffering. If excess eventually leads to grief, it becomes easier to adopt the discipline necessary to overcome those excesses and minimize suffering. In minimizing our own suffering through discipline, we minimize the suffering we cause to those around us.